Rockies Express the King of Right of Way Pipeline Projects
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Rockies Express The King of Right of Way Pipeline Projects BY BARBARA BILLITZER For those who were closely involved with it, this was the project WHERE IT ALL BEGAN of a lifetime. The Rockies Express Pipeline project, aptly christened REX, is the largest and possibly most significant The push to build REX came from Rockies gas producers in late natural gas pipeline project to be completed in the United States 2005. There was growing demand for safe, clean-burning natural in the past twenty years - perhaps ever. gas in the United States, and additional pipeline capacity would be needed to deliver it to end users. At the time, pipeline capacity Designed to keep pace with the nation’s need for energy, was so limited that producers couldn’t even get fuel to market. the Rockies Express Pipeline System represents a significant Gas was selling at a reduced rate of up to 30% compared to investment in U.S. energy infrastructure. Spanning 1,679 miles prices in the east. across eight states, this massive undertaking took four years to complete and cost nearly $6.8 billion. The vast but remote stores of fossil fuel buried under the Rocky Mountains needed to be linked with the power-hungry markets REX is, indeed, the king of pipeline projects, and it presented of the Midwest and Northeast. The key question was, who was some king-size right of way challenges. equipped to build the infrastructure necessary? 2 0 Right of WaY MARCH/APRIL 2 0 1 0 The project would be developed by Rockies Express RIGHT OF WAY CHALLENGES Pipeline LLC, as a joint development of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.; Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit The project team was comprised of representatives of REX of Sempra Energy; and ConocoPhillips. “Everybody really and its partner companies, engineering, environmental and needed the pipe,” said Steven Kean, Kinder’s President of cultural, legal support and public and government relations Natural Gas Pipelines and Chief Operating Officer. contractors. It was constructed in three phases—REX-Entrega, 327 In 2005, Contract Land Staff (CLS) got involved with the miles across Colorado and Wyoming, REX-West, 713 right of way feasibility study. They were asked to review and miles from Wyoming to eastern Missouri, and the recently fine-tune the route in early August. In the same timeframe, completed REX-East portion, which stretches from they were tasked with collecting tax ownership records in eastern Missouri to eastern Ohio. anticipation of the FERC-mandated open house meetings. According to CLS Senior Vice President Kerry Malone, who SIZE MATTERS led the project team, “These meetings were needed so that the public had an opportunity to learn about the project, ask By necessity, the project route was designed to cross a questions and raise potential issues. As part of this process, it large portion of agricultural land in the states of Nebraska, was imperative that we advise each owner about the meeting, Illinois and Indiana, and to a lesser extent in Missouri, an essential task that required a mailing list of all property Kansas and Ohio. As is typical with Federal Energy owners across all eight states.” Regulatory Commission (FERC) projects, REX planners attempted to follow pre-existing utility easements wherever practical, but there were still large expanses of “green fields” along the route. The number of affected property owners was staggering. Nearly 25,000 stakeholders were involved in the half-mile corridor encompassing the pipeline route – all of whom had to be advised of their rights under FERC regulations. REX West and East covered portions of eight states and involved 1,352 miles of right of way for a 42” welded steel natural gas pipeline system. There were 4,843 tracts with more than 6,500 individual owners. There were 74 railroad crossings and hundreds of drainage districts, townships, municipal jurisdictions, zoning boards and other entities which required permits or related agreements. The right of way team needed to acquire 22 meter/ interconnect sites, as well as 15 compressor station sites. Easements were required for over 400 temporary and permanent access roads. They were also required to obtain all non-environmental permitting and permission for the crossings of more than 1,400 federal, state, county and local roads. Permitting agreements were also required for districts and water body crossings owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. REX West engaged pipe stringing and bending in Wyoming. M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 Right of Way 21 The route also passed through what proved to be several rich archeological and cultural zones, requiring lengthy investigation and mitigation. There were 62 cultural sites eligible for listing in the National Registry for Historic Places identified along the route. Of those, 47 were successfully mitigated, and the remaining 15 were successfully avoided altogether. Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the project team successfully negotiated an agreement to avoid the “take” of migratory birds and/or their Trains were used to transport pipe throughout REX construction. habitat. They were also able to obtain a “not likely to adversely effect” decision by implementing appropriate and revolutionary methods to protect the Indiana bat and its However, when they began researching the ownership records habitat. In some areas, prime hunting caused concerns for available online, they were amazed to find that there was survey and construction. virtually no data available for the areas involved. As a result, they knew that field investigations would be required to obtain There were 1,485 surface water body crossings identified. these records, and they needed to work quickly. The CLS Major environmental permits, licenses, authorizations and corporate office staff created packages containing all of the clearances were required. Over the six states affected, the pertinent information needed for tracking down the property team obtained 41 state permits and 13 federal permits. owners. The package included plat book pages in each county The unfamiliarity of some state and federal agencies with indicating the route or corridor that needed to be researched, processing environmental permits for a project of this addresses for courthouse records and tax offices, hotel magnitude created unanticipated delays, and the nuances of the and motel listings for each area and FedEx drop locations FERC process made for some interesting moments. for the daily transmission of hard copy data back to the corporate office. Also included was a standardized process for electronic communications between the agents and the RAMPING UP corporate office. It was the Wednesday prior to the Thanksgiving holiday when This organized process enabled a minimal number of agents CLS received the REX West staffing approval. The day had to hit the ground running. It also resulted in the cost-effective finally arrived where they could move forward with the next and rapid collection of all data needed to construct the mailing step, and they were faced with conflicting travel schedules. To lists. For the REX West portion, data for the 713 miles was complicate matters, the critical and time-sensitive Open House collected and organized in less than three weeks. The REX Notice letters also arrived that Wednesday, and they needed to East portion utilized the same accelerated process. be mailed immediately. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT For many companies, the four-day holiday weekend was sacred. So it came as no surprise to CLS to discover that their mail The project experienced other challenges, many of which were processing service was closed until the following Monday. Not caused by Mother Nature. Long and severe winter conditions willing to waste any time, CLS management and support staff prevailed during the primary construction seasons for both realized that they needed to handle it internally. Even with the REX West and REX East. Incessant rains in many areas limited staff available, they were able to process 6,800 Open presented scheduling issues for the construction operation. House Notices in just two days. It wasn’t easy, but through The project was plagued with what national media sources perseverance and teamwork, the team overcame the first hurdle deemed to be the “500 year” rains, along with the flooding, and met the FERC timeline, which required they hold the clean-up and restoration issues that followed. meetings in December and January. 2 2 Right of WaY MARCH/APRIL 2 0 1 0 The hiring and placement of agents, supervisors and administrative staff was accelerated, and wherever possible, they were assigned to report immediately following the holiday to begin survey permitting activities. The CLS team knew that every phase of the project was time-sensitive, and they had only a few months to finish the permitting process. Fortunately, the permits were obtained on schedule, and the acquisition of options for easements began in March 2006 as planned. The next step was to complete title investigation, document preparation and agent training with another aggressive timeline. With only twelve months until the construction commenced, the project team needed to stay focused on goals and timelines, while managing all of the right of way processes. STAFF DEMONSTRATES TRUE SUCCESS To ensure success, CLS management recognized that all personnel assigned to the project would need to be highly motivated, trained and prepared. Extensive training was required, followed by the development of a comprehensive project procedures manual to ensure consistency. With thousands of documents to monitor and file, CLS relied on their proprietary state-of-the-art data management system to automate production of new documents and maintain data Pipe is laid out along the right of way during REX West construction throughout the project. in Nebraska. states with reciprocity, to handle the load there and to provide Finding experienced staff was also challenging and required training to bring those folks up to speed.